Barros Jarpa and Barros Luco

It is entirely fitting that we cram these two sandwiches together because they are related both historically and taste-orically (huh?). The Barros Jarpa y Luco hail from Chile and have kind of a neat lil’ backstory. The two sandwiches were created in the restaurant of the National Congress of Chile. The Barros Jarpa, a melty ham and cheese, is named after Ernesto Barros Jarpa, a lawyer and politician. This guy right here:
Well hello, Glasses.

As for the sandwich’s origin story, I will just let this delightful bit of google translate do its work:

“very slow considering the preparation of Sandwich Barros Luco, and as always was rushed, called an ‘ally ham-cheese’, but hot, and the servants to see him come and meet their plight shouted inward from the kitchen: ‘A Jarpa Barros, master’, thus baptizing popular Chilean sandwich known as Barros Jarpa.”

Okey-dokey then!

The Barros Luco is a melty steak and cheese, with peppers, and it is named after Senor Barros Jarpa’s cousin, Ramon Barros Luco. This fella’:

Well hello, Moustache!

This gentleman became the president of Chile, and his government’s philosophy was “99% of problems solve themselves, and the remaining 1% have no solutions” which perhaps explains why Senor Barros Luco is now best known for creating a sandwich (not that there is anything wrong with that, I think the vicomtesse and I would about kill for the opportunity to coin a famous sandwich).

So how do these bad boys stack up?

Predictions:

The general consensus was that these sandwiches would be kinda boring, which partly explains why we decided to cover them together. However, we both acknowledged that there is nothing wrong with any of the ingredients involved so we expected they would be rather tasty, just nothing earthshattering.

Preparation:

Props to the vicomtesse for spearheading this one. She picked up some nice crusty white bread, some good ham, some hanger steak, some peppers, and (after searching in vain for the correct cheese) some pepper jack.

The steak was sliced thinly and sauteed with balsamic vinegar, peppers and garlic. The ham was also fried a bit. Then we assembled the sandwiches and toasted them in the cast-iron.

Impressions:

Very tasty indeed! Those deceased Chilean politicians knew what they were talking about. We both preferred the Barros Luco because of the extra kick that the hot peppers added, but gosh, does anyone have a problem with a melty ham and cheese? I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THEM.

Final Question: Do you immediately want to eat another of this (these) sandwich(es)?

Sure, why not? I believe our prediction was quite accurate. This sandwich is a little boring but definitely tasty. With a little experimentation, perhaps these could be outstanding sandwiches — particularly the Barros Luco (balsamic, hot peppers, and steak is a LEGIT flavor profile) — but they do leave a little something to be desired.